Gracie's Normal Day
by Little Christian
Summary: A longish one-shot about a normal day for Gracie. No adventures, no dangers, no evil dolphins or puffins. Sounds like paradise! Enjoy! :D


**My last one-shot before my next story. Enjoy!**

What does Gracie do on a normal day? A day with no adventures, no dangers, nothing special. Well, in the Central Park Zoo, days like that are hard to come by, but when does happen to cross her path, what does she do? We'll start from the beginning of the day…

Gracie sat up in her little bed, stretching her wings out and yawning widely. She rubbed her jade eyes rid of sleep, and gazing around the room she shared with her friends. Cleo was already up, and about, it seemed, since her bed was unoccupied, and neatly made. Rusty was also up, since his bed was empty, thought still messy, like his feathers in the morning. Ace and Cam were still asleep, so Gracie tip-toed out of the room so as not to wake them.

"Morning, Gracie," Private said as she came into the main room.

"Good Morning, Daddy," Gracie replied with a smile. She sat at the table, and picked up a small fish, nibbling on it as she picked up her crayons and began to draw, which is what she always did in the morning.

"What's that?" Rusty asked looking over her shoulder. He immediately frowned.

"It's you after you came home from playing paintball with Ace and Cam last," Gracie replied. Her picture showed Rusty, covered in paint, and very angry looking.

"You're not putting it in your book, are you?" Rusty asked nervously.

"Yep."

"How can you to this to me?!" Rusty moaned, leaving the room; but not before pinching a couple of fish off the table. Gracie smiled as she glued the piece of paper in her drawing book. She flipped back to page one, which was a crude drawing of herself and Private. She flipped through the book, amazed at how much she had improved since she began drawing. Though her art skills hardly compared to Rusty's. Maybe he could give her some tips.

The adult penguins had to train. Cam wished she could train with them, but Skipper said they weren't old enough yet, so the chicks had to go to Marlene's so they would stay out of trouble. Marlene was a great babysitter, Gracie thought. Sometimes Eggy would come over too, and Omega could play with him. This was one of those days, and the two stayed in the cave, playing. The older chicks stayed outside.

"Come into the pool, guys!" Ace called. Gracie dropped her crayons and waded in, feeling the cool water on her feathers. Cam sat away from the water.

"Come on, Cammy!" Gracie called. "You have to learn to swim sometime! What if we go on a fishing trip, and you fall into the water?"

"Than Dad or someone can save me," Cam replied stubbornly. "I won't come." She crossed her flippers, and looked away. Gracie thought she looked lonely, but left her alone with her temper.

Suddenly, something grabbed her feet and pulled her under. She screamed, water filling her beak as she struggled back to the surface. Then something held her under her wings, bringing pulling her back up. She coughed, wiping the water out of her eyes. It was Rusty, and he was glaring at Ace, who had a mischievous grin on his beak.

"Don't do that!" Rusty snapped as he swam with Gracie back to shore. "You could have drowned her!" Ace shrugged.

"It was a just a prank!" he insisted.

"Well, it wasn't very nice," Gracie said angrily, realising what happened. Cleo gave Ace a disapproving look, and Ace looked down at the water.

"It was just a joke," he repeated. "What's the big deal?" Cleo swam over to him and gave him a long list of the consequences of such a joke going horribly wrong. Ace's beak was open, and his eyes wide as he listened.

Gracie went back to her crayons as Marlene came out.

"Who screamed?" she asked.

"Gracie," Rusty answered. He pointed to Ace. "He pulled her under as a joke." Marlene frowned, shaking her head as she went back inside. Gracie lay on her stomach on the grass, her head in her flippers as she gazed ahead of her.

"Whatcha thinking about?" Rusty asked.

"Consequences," she replied. "I'm sure Cleo is most definitely going to tell Uncle Kowalski, who is going to tell Uncle Skippah, who is going to scold Ace, who is going to get mad at me for squealing, and I'm going to get upset, and tell Daddy, who will tell Uncle Skippah, who will scold Ace again, and we're going to have a dreadful evening."

"What?" Rusty asked, confused. Gracie sighed.

"We're all going to be mad at each other for no apparent reason after Uncle Skippah finds out about this."

Gracie was almost correct in her prediction. Cleo did indeed tell Kowalski about the event, at dinner that evening, and Skipper did scold Ace, who did get mad, but after hearing Cleo's lecture, took his punishment well – no TV or snow cones for a week, which was hard for him. Private got very concerned, and kept asking Gracie if she was alright, and Gracie kept assuring him she was, and changed the subject.

"Eggy was there today," she said, unable to think of anything else to say. "Omega had a jolly good time, didn't you?"

"Sure did," Omega said too quickly, and became very interested in his puréed fish. Gracie gave him a look when he glanced at her, and he sighed.

"Except for when he said ducks were better than penguins, and that my beak was too big." He tapped his beak self-consciously. Gracie sighed. Usually Omega went to Gracie with his problems, but when he told her about it earlier, she said she didn't know what to do about it, and that he should ask Daddy. Whenever Private gave him advice, he listened carefully, because getting advice from him was Gracie's advice, and he always listened to his sister.

"Well, the thing about ducks is a matter of opinion," Private began. "Since Eggy is a duckling, he'd think his species was better. And as for your beak, it's not too big; it's just the right size for Omega."

"And besides, the beak isn't the problem," Cam added. "Your face is just too small. When it grows, I'm sure it'll look better." Gracie nudged her hard in the ribs, and quickly went back to her fish. Cam glared at her, receiving a glare from Skipper.

"You know what, Daddy," Gracie said to Private as he tucked her in that night."

"What?" Private asked, smiling as he stroked her head.

"Today was positively boring!" Gracie said, sitting up.

"What makes you say that?" Private asked, somewhat surprised. "I thought you had fun."

"I did, but when I think about it, the days we have adventures are more fun. It's nice to have a normal day every now and then, but Id rather the thrill of adventure."

"I suppose that's fair enough," Private agreed. "Lie down now and go to sleep." He kissed her forehead. "Good night."

"Good night, Daddy."

**Please review! :D**


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